ISLAMABAD, 3 February 2008 — Thousands of chickens were culled in the capital’s Hazara and Chak Shehzad districts and Murree’s poultry farms as bird flu scare spread in Pakistan yesterday.
Several chickens brought to the National Health Laboratory tested positive for the H5N1 strain of the avian flu, health officials said.
At least 2,500 birds were found dead in a poultry farm near Karachi yesterday. The farm is owned and operated by security forces. The dead birds are being tested for bird flu, officials said.
In India’s West Bengal state, a senior official yesterday allayed fears of human infection even as a health worker who fell sick during culling of poultry remained under surveillance.
The massive slaughter of birds under way across the state for days, with a culling target of 2.9 million, ended yesterday. The authorities have culled over 2.7 million birds in 13 affected districts.
“The man who fell sick after returning from culling at Rampurhat (Birbhum district) is under special observation at a hospital. His blood samples have been sent for tests. But so far we have not found anything to suggest he is infected,” health official R.S. Shukla said.
The health worker, Subhas Barui, a resident of Janka village in East Midnapore, was taken ill Jan. 30. He was admitted to the isolation ward at Tomluk Hospital, 125 km from Kolkata.
“There are reports that he had not taken the Tamiflu tablets, which is unlikely to be true. All cullers take the medicine,” Shukla said.
In West Bengal, the H5N1 virus has hit parts of 13 out of 19 districts, the affecting areas housing 1.8 million people.
Shukla described as incorrect reports of human infection. “No one has been quarantined. There is only routine surveillance of the people engaged in culling operations. Many of them are anyway falling sick due to intense cold.
“We are maintaining records of people falling sick. If there is anything that indicates human infection, we will take all necessary measures. But so far all 18 tests we carried out have proved negative.”
Animal Resource Development Minister Anisur Rahaman said culling was completed in most of the affected districts and the situation was under control.
Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) chief medical officer Deb Dwaipayan Chattopadhyay said at least a dozen farms had been allowed to sell poultry products in the city. He asked people to consume chicken without worry.
— Additional input from Indo-Asian News Service
